WHDI Spec Set For Multi-Room HD Streaming

The Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) consortium finalized its WHDI 1.0 standard for streaming uncompressed 1080p video around the house and through walls to TV displays from set-top boxes, laptops and handheld devices.

The 5GHz-band technology will be demonstrated at the group's Las Vegas Hilton suite during International CES in January.

Competing wireless technologies also offer multi-room capability but use compression, the group contends.

Pre-standard WHDI technology already appears in a number of products, including Sony's wireless Bravia Link, Philips SWW1800/27 Wireless HDTV Link, Zinwell and Gefen wireless dongles, an IDX professional video camera, and a wireless endoscopy system approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the group said.

The finalized standard would ensure interoperability among different-branded devices that license the technology and bear a WHDI logo. However, the group said it cannot guarantee the interoperability of 1.0 devices with products incorporating pre-standard WHDI technology.

With WHDI 1.0, a set-top box or other video source could transmit a 1080p/60Hz Deep Color video stream more than 100 feet through walls to multiple TVs around the house without running cables, the group said. Likewise, because the technology supports low-power-consumption modes for portable devices, battery-operated laptops and cellphones could stream 1080p video to a display or receive 1080p video from a source within the home.

The spec, based on Amimon's technology, enables uncompressed Deep-Color 1080p streaming because its throughput exceeds 4Gbps in a 40MHz channel, the group said, citing MIMO (multiple input multiple output) technology and what the group called “a unique video modem concept that provides more protection to the more important bits and less protection to the less important bits.”

The group claims up to 13 separate 1080p programs could be streamed simultaneously in a house if its technology is used, although a WHDI transmitter would have to be dedicated to each stream, a spokesman said.

WHDI is the only solution that meets consumers' expectation and demand for a high-quality multi-room HD wireless solution,” group president Leslie Chard said. “WHDI further enables two of the strongest trends in the A/V universe: the proliferation of HD content sources, now including the PC and mobile devices, and the increasing number of inexpensive, high-quality displays placed throughout the home.”

WHDI group members are Amimon, Hitachi, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp and Sony. The group, which licenses and promotes the standard, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amimon.